The effect of clinical education programs on hospital production

Because of rising hospital costs and the reluctance of third-party payers to reimburse for clinical training, major questions have been raised about the costs and benefits of these programs. The effect of student programs on production has, nonetheless, been largely neglected, in part because of the difficulty of measuring the effectiveness of these programs. To address this deficiency, multiple regression analysis was used to determine the impact of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and radiologic technology students on production in a large hospital in a metropolitan area. The impact of students on departmental output in all three areas was found to be positive.